Ahmedabad/ New Delhi: Almost nine years after Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in Ahmedabad on suspicion of being a part of a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) module out to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is all set to file its first chargesheet in the designated CBI court in Ahmedabad to explain what really happened on June 15, 2004.
CNN-IBN has learnt that the CBI in the chargesheet will state that Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed by the Gujarat Police in cold blood. The CBI is unlikely to name Modi and BJP General Secretary Amit Shah in the first chargesheet.
CNN-IBN also learns that the Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau Rajinder Kumar will not be named at this stage. He is being probed to ascertain the basis on which he generated the information that lead to the encounter.
Why is this chargesheet important?
Narendra Modi has dared CBI to name him or any of his associates and said that the Congress is out to frame him through the CBI. Modi, Shah and Kumar not being named will validate BJP's stand as the party has been alleging that the Congress is misusing rge CBI to target BJP leaders,
Moreover, charges against IB officer Rajendra Kumar will make it a CBI vs IB case.
People invovled:
Ishrat Jahan: A college girl from Mumbra, Maharashtra, belonged to a lower middle class family. Second of seven siblings, Ishrat was the breadwinner of the family after her father's death in 2002.
Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh: A Mumbai-based petty criminal involved in counterfeit currency and smuggling. He was friends with Ishrat.
Amjad Ali Rana: Allegedly a Pakistani national but there's no documentary evidence to prove it. His identity remains a mystery.
Zeeshan Johar: Allegrdly a Pakistani national but no one claimed his and Amjad Ali's bodies after they were killed. Zeeshan was allegedly handed over to Gujarat police by IB officials before the encounter.
Ishrat Jahan case timeline:
On June 15, 2004 Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in an encounter near Ahmedabad. Police claim they were members of the Pakistan-based LeT on a mission to kill Modi.
The encounter killings of four people Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year-old girl from Mumbai, and three men - Pranesh Pillai (alias Javed Gulam Sheikh), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar took place on an empty road stretch between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
On June 11, 2004, Ishrat left for Nashik with Javed. It's not known how she came to Gujarat on June 15
The probe:
September 2009: Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate SP Tamang calls the encounter fake.
September 2010: Gujarat HC constitutes new SIT after the RK Raghavan-headed SIT expresses its inability to undertake the probe. New SIT is headed by one IPS officer from outside Gujarat and two Gujarat cadre officers Mohan Jha and Satish Verma.
January 2011: Verma calls encounter fake, accuses other members of not allowing unbiased probe.
December 2011: HC orders CBI probe in the case.
February 2013: CBI makes its first arrest, Gujarat IPS GL Singhal. The detailed probe first by the SIT and subsequently by the CBI did not find any link between the dead and the LeT.
May 2013: CBI court issues an arrest warrant against Gujarat's ADG PP Pande.
May 2013: IB special director Rajinder Kumar summoned for interrogation.
June 2013: CBI removes Verma from probe team, summons Rajinder Kumar.
June 28: Union Home Ministry refuses to sanction Kumar's prosecution.
July 4: CBI deadline to file final report, chargesheet.
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